North of 60 Mining News - The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

Golden Predator Mining Corp. June 14 said it will be testing for high-grade gold across the wider 3 Aces project with a 2,500-meter drill program at the Sprogge area of this 357-square-kilometer (138 squares miles property in southeast Yukon.

Late in 2017, Golden Predator cut deals with Alexco Exploration Canada Corp. and Newmont Canada Corp. to buy full ownership of Sprogge, a large gold property immediately southeast of the original 3 Aces property.

Golden Predator said Sprogge has the same geological setting as 3 Aces' central core area and the same favorable structural-stratigraphic contacts that host gold occurrences in that high-grade zone can be traced from Sprogge through 3 Aces and projected to the Reef and Hy-Jay gold occurrences some 35 kilometers (22 miles) to the north.

A 3,682-meter winter drill program that began in March tested the company's structural model with wide-spaced holes to test the continuity along favorable stratigraphic-structural contacts within the 3 Aces core zone.

Extensive quartz veining was encountered in 12 of the 15 holes drilled during the program, with significant gold reported in seven. The best hole, 3A18-309, cut 2.5 meters of 13.93 g/t gold from a depth of 87.5 meters.

"We are increasingly confident that we understand the gold deposition at 3 Aces and that the primary structural control in our model accounts for the most important gold occurrences on 3 Aces over a distance of more than 30 kilometers (19 miles)," said Golden Predator Chairman William Sheriff.

With the winter program confirming the model, Golden Predator will test for similar structures at Sprogge with drilling slated to begin in early July.

Historical surface sampling of the primary structural zone at Sprogge returned 25 quartz outcrop samples ranging from 5.73 to 46.49 grams per metric ton gold along 2,000 meters. This exposed primary structural control lies along the eastern edge of an extensive gold-in-soil anomaly.

Golden Predator's initial drilling of Sprogge will be the first program to target this prospective outcropping structure.

Golden Predator Mining Corp.

The primary structural control on the gold occurrences identified at 3 Aces is a stratigraphic feature characterized by coarse sandstone and conglomerate in contact with shale and phyllite. A persistent shattering, deformation and quartz vein development at this stratigraphic contact shows faulting and shearing at this position in the stratigraphic sequence. The gold bearing veins at 3 Aces occur where this primary structure is associated with secondary structures, such as steeply dipping faults and folding.

"The key to successful drilling at 3 Aces is to intersect, at the optimal orientation, the primary structural control where these secondary controls exist," said Sherriff. "We now better understand how to do this through the structural model as confirmed with field mapping. The next step is to apply this knowledge to the high value targets in the Sprogge area."

Now that the structural model is better understood, providing for proper drilling locations and orientations, the company plans to revisit areas in the western part of the 3 Aces central core zone tested last year with additional drilling later in 2018.

–SHANE LASLEY